Thread by @mtdukes

As #SunshineWeek winds down, just a quick thread about a pretty awesome tradition here in North Carolina.

For 8 years now, we've brought together a coalition of journalists from across the state interested in telling stories to promote open government and transparency.

It started in 2015, when we examined a year's worth of travel records from the state's top leaders, combining the forces of @wral, @newsobserver, @theobserver, @SpecNews1RDU, @fayobserver & @wectnews. wral.com/records-show-b…

wral.com/governor-s-off…

In 2016, @wral, @ap, @newsobserver, @theobserver, @SpecNews1RDU and @wectnews teamed up to probe state and local officials' use of private email to conduct public business (anyone remember Nick Danger?). wral.com/private-email-…

My late colleague Mark Binker stepped up in 2017 to lead a team at @WRAL, @AP, @newsobserver, @CPublicPress, @NewsandRecord, @wectnews and @theobserver to look at the lax handling of text messages as public records. wral.com/text-messages-…

We built an even bigger coalition in 2018 - @wral, @ap, @theobserver, @fayobserver, @newsobserver, @thetimesnews @SpecNews1RDU, @wect, @NewsandRecord & @wunc - to understand how officials document their activities during secret (but lawful!) meetings.
wral.com/months-after-c…

In 2019, we got the gang back together - 8 newsrooms - to explore settlements state and local agencies frequently draw up with little public scrutiny. @wral, @AP, @CPublicPress, @theobserver, @newsobserver, @wectnews & @wunc teamed on that one. wral.com/behind-the-sce…

In 2020, it was secret search warrants, a 30-county probe of how courts treat these essential public documents by @ap, @CPublicPress, @theobserver, @dailyadvance, @fayobserver, @newsobserver, @telegramreports, @wectnews , @WLOS_13, @WRAL & @wunc carolinapublicpress.org/29980/secret-s…

Those years of collaboration paid off.

Just a few weeks after our 2020 story, @NickOchsnerWBTV called with what he thought were some basic questions about the emergence of novel coronavirus – questions neither of us could answer.

He thought an NC-wide collaboration might help.

We formed the @ncwatchdognet, a coalition of newsrooms including @CPublicPress, @theobserver, @newsobserver, @WBTV_News, @wectnews, @WRAL & @wunc to tackle more than a dozen stories throughout the year together.

And in 2021, @ncwatchdognet tackled #SunshineWeek together as a team, revealing why North Carolina – and the Biden administration – refused to release carefully tracked details on the number of people who die in police custody. newsobserver.com/news/politics-…

This year, @ncwatchdognet tackled 2 big topics for #SunshineWeek that required managing 60 records requests and thousands of documents:
• State leader calendars
newsobserver.com/news/politics-…

• The legislature's internal chatter about redrawing political lines
newsobserver.com/news/politics-…

That marks eight years (!!) of putting competition aside to pursue stories in the public interest. Stories all about government transparency and public records that belong to all of us, not just journalists.

If you've read, watched or listened to any of these projects, I hope you've learned something new about the ways you can see inside the inner workings of our government.

I certainly have.

And I'm very grateful for this year's contributions from:
@lauraelee
Frank Taylor
@jojot_wilkie
@KateReports
@smlcoello
@_lucillesherman
@Jordan_Schrader
@cathyclabby
@NickOchsnerWBTV
@michael_praats
@TravisFain
@Ali_IngNews
@jasondebruyn

Meanwhile, stay tuned while we get to work on year nine.